In order to establish a testing method, diagnostic method, and therapeutic method effective to cancers, it is necessary to find out a cancer antigen that expresses in an objective cancer with high frequency and has high antigenicity. However, there are few cancer antigens useful for testing, diagnosis, or treatment of digestive system cancers, especially gastric cancer and colon cancer. Therefore, it is very important to develop useful cancer antigens for testing, diagnosis, or treatment of digestive system cancers.
In terms of accompanying side effects, the most useful antigen for testing, diagnosis, or treatment of human cancer is considered to be a cancer-testis antigen (hereinafter referred to as “CT antigen”) that expresses in various cancers, but are confined to testis among normal tissues. To date, about 40 kinds of CT antigens have been identified and reported. However, all of these CT antigens do not possess strong immunogenicity to cancer patients, and there are a limited number of CT antigens promising for diagnosis marker of cancers, test marker of cancers, or treatment of cancers.
Typical CT antigens that have been reported to date include MAGE (see Non Patent Literature 1), SSX (see Non Patent Literature 2), and NY-ESO-1 (see Non Patent Literature 3). MAGE and NY-ESO-1 have been applied in clinical settings in the world, particularly in Europe and the United States, and the clinical settings have achieved some positive results (for example, for clinical application of NY-ESO-1, see Non Patent Literature 4). Thus, it can be said that NY-ESO-1 is currently the most promising CT antigen for applications to treatment of cancer and the like.
Non Patent Literature 1
van der Bruggen P, Traversari C, Chomez P, Lurquin C, De Plaen E, van den Eynde B, Knuth A, Boon T. A gene encoding an antigen recognized by cytolytic T lymphocytes on a human melanoma. Science 254: 1643-1647, 1991.
Non Patent Literature 2
Gure A O, Tureci O, Sahin U, Tsang S, Scanlan M J, Jager E, Knuth A, Pfreundschuh M, Old L J, Chen Y T. SSX: a multigene family with several members transcribed in normal testis and human cancer. Int. J. Cancer 72: 965-971, 1997.
Non Patent Literature 3
Chen Y T, Scanlan, M J, Sahin U, Tureci O, Gure A O, Tsang S, Williamson B, Stockert E, Pfreundschuh M, Old L J. A testicular antigen aberrantly expressed in human cancers detected by autologous antibody screening. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94: 1914-1918, 1997.
Non Patent Literature 4
Jager E, Gnjatic S, Nagata Y, Stockert E, Jager D, Karbach J, Neumann A, Rieckenberg J, Chen Y T, Ritter G, Hoffman E, Arand M, Old L J, Knuth A. Induction of primary NY-ESO-1 immunity: CD8+ T lymphocyte and antibody responses in peptide-vaccinated patients with NY-ESO-1+ cancers. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97: 12198-12203, 2000.
Non Patent Literature 5
Stockert E, Jager E, Chen Y T, Scanlan M J, Gout I, Karbach J, Arand M, Knuth A, Old L J. A survey of the humoral immune response of cancer patients to a panel of human tumor antigens. J. Exp. Med. 187: 1349-1354, 1998.
Non Patent Literature 6
Kurashige T, Noguchi Y, Saika T, Ono T, Nagata Y, Jungbluth A A, Ritter G, Chen Y T, Stockert E, Tsushima T, Kumon H, Old L J, Nakayama E. NY-ESO-1 expression and immunogenicity associated with transitional cell carcinoma: correlation with tumor grade. Cancer Res. 61: 4671-4674, 2001.
Non Patent Literature 7
Nakada T, Noguchi Y, Sato S, Ono T, Saika T, Kurashige T, Gnjatic S, Ritter G, Chen Y T, Stockert E, Nasu Y, Tsushima T, Kumon H, Old L J, Nakayama E. NY-ESO-1 mRNA expression and immunogenicity in advanced prostate cancer. Cancer Immunity 3: 10, 2003.
Non Patent Literature 8
Sugita Y, Wada S, Fujita S, Nakata T, Sato S, Noguchi Y, Jungbluth A A, Yamaguchi M, Chen Y T, Stockert E, Gnjatic S, Williamson B, Scanlan M J, Ono T, Sakita I, Yasui M, Miyoshi Y, Tamaki Y, Matsuura N, Noguchi S, Old L J, Nakayama E, Monden M. NY-ESO-1 expression and immunogenicity in malignant and benign breast tumors. Cancer Res. 64: 2199-2204, 2004.
Non Patent Literature 9
Fujita S, Wada H, Jungbluth A A. Sato S, Nakata T, Noguchi Y, Doki Y, Yasui M, Sugita Y, Yasuda T, Yano M, Ono T, Chen Y T, Higashiyama M, Gnjatic S, Old L J, Nakayama E, Monden M. NY-ESO-1 expression and immunogenicity in esophageal cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 10: 6551-6558, 2004.
Non Patent Literature 10
Nakamura, S, Nouso K, Noguchi Y, Higashi T, Ono T, Jungbluth A A, Chen Y T, Old L J, Nakayama E, Shiratori Y. Expression and immunogenicity of NY-ESO-1 in hepatocellular carcinoma. J. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 21: 1281-1285, 2006.